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Thursday, September 27, 2012

I am really excited to share with you a kit that I've put together featuring the brand new Portfolio line by Pink Paislee! My good friend Davinie and I have collaborated, and we've each made some handmade things for this kit as well, just a few special touches we think you'll love!

Out of U.S. = please contact me for shipping costs: dflanders71@gmail.com.

This kit will work beautifully for cards OR layouts. The journaling card paper is awesome for cutting small pieces and making cards with them, as well as the 6x6" paper pack. The chipboard hearts and stars are from the brand new Artisan line by Pink Paislee, and are mistable, meaning you can color these chipboard pieces with mist, paint, ink.....any medium.... to help them come to life.I have very limited quantities this time around, so I cannot guarantee they'll be around for long!
So many fun things to play with - and endless possibilities! This kit does not come with directions for projects, however Davinie and I will be making layouts and cards and posting them on our blogs for ideas...and quite possibly a guest blogger will assist us as well!

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Thank you to all who left a comment for the Scrapbook & Cards Today issues! I will announce the winners in a moment. First, I have two fall cards to share made with Lily Bee's new Autumn Spice line. Love the colors!

On this card, I used a Papertrey Ink die called Photo Finish Strips to cut the red strip with an Autumn Spice sticker in the middle. Before adhering it, I added a mini clothespin to hang a sentiment, stamped with the new Autumn Spice stamps! Tag is cut with the Tiny Tags.

On the next card, I pulled out my beloved Maple Leaf punch again (by Fiskars, I believe). I have gotten so much use out of this punch! The little fall journaling card was so cute, I had to use it on my card. Inspired by the tab on the top, I cut another tabbed piece with my Desktop File: Inspiration die (center die) to tuck behind.

The mini clothespins were just from the craft supply store, but a fun addition.

And a little bit of twine tops off the fall-ish feel! You really can't go wrong mixing and matching these papers - they are gorgeous together!

I hope you will visit the Lily Bee blog all this week for more fall inspiration! The leaves on the trees are starting to turn here in New York, and I really need to get out and take some pictures. It's a beautiful time of year here! I have two big things coming up - can't wait to share those that I've been working on with you.

Now to announce the winners of the SCT Magazine giveaway. Ladies, please contact me at dflanders71@hotmail.com with your mailing addresses! Thank you to everyone for stopping by! :)

Friday, September 21, 2012

I have some fun news that I've been excited about for awhile now and can finally share - I am a cover girl! I was shocked when I received an email letting me know my version was going to be on the cover. The fall issue of Scrapbook & Cards Today just came out today, and you can view it online here. Such a great issue - full of inspiration!

As you can see, I used many of my Papertrey Ink products, including some gorgeous fall cardstock colors: Classic Kraft, Canyon Clay, Harvest Gold, Lemon
Tart, Ripe Avocado, Dark Chocolate for the title and Pure Poppy. I cut some felt leaves from the Autumn Acorns dies by Papertrey Ink, and the title is cut with the Script Alphabet die. The saying at the top was stamped with Gratitude Journal. I wanted to create a sort of ombre effect, but fall-ish in style, and thought the stripes would mimic her cute outfit.

I have two extra hard copies to give away! I love making fall pages, so tell me... what are your favorite fall products right now for crafting?

Saturday, September 15, 2012

The first card was made with the new Mistletoe & Holly stamp set. I first brushed the edges with white acrylic paint, then before it was completely dry, I stamped holly in Spring Moss ink over Spring Moss cardstock. Then some of the same holly leaves were added with Ripe Avocado over the top....a neat effect with the paint showing through!

This background was die cut with the Cover Plate: Harlequin, but I kept all the pieces in tact and glued them to a card base. The snowflakes from Snowflake Medley and sentiment from Think Big Favorites #20 were stamped right over the top. The trick
is to use a foam pad underneath the card while stamping to assure a nice
image. This really helps when you are stamping over an embossed design
like this. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas card:

I wanted to try something different with the Happy Harlequin stamp set and Cover Plate instead of just cutting the cover plate and inserting the harlequins where they would normally go, so I die cut the harlequins and stamped in all different blue inks, then tried to arrange them in a fun wintery pattern.

The frame is cut with Framed Out #8 die and stamped with new Limeade Ice ink! (Ribbon is Limeade Ice also.) Sentiment is from Framed Out #8. The background is stamped with Background Basics: Twinkle.

Next, meetthe new Winter Snow Globe stamp set. I die cut the snow globe and trimmed off the bottom of the globe for the center of the snowflake. Sweet Blush cardstock was embossed with the flakes from the snow globe set and some frosty glitter was added!

I used the Edgers #3 die to create layers on the front flap, so the front flap is a little bit shorter than the back, allowing the sentiment to peek through from the inside of the card.

Papertrey Ink now has a fun die called Beautiful Beads, and you can do just what the name implies with this die...make beautiful beads for bracelets, necklaces, earrings, etc! I followed Nichole Heady's video from Stamp-a-Faire to make my own beads and bracelet! First, I used the fun die to cut these pieces from the two Beautiful Beads pattern paper. The paper is thin for rolling, so with one swipe of the die cutter, you can easily cut 4 sheets and dozens of triangles at once.

(Not all of the papers are shown here.)

Following the directions in the video, I rolled the papers up onto a skewer with a simple glue stick! Then the beads are coated with clear nail polish, which really brought out the colors in the papers and made them hard and durable like real beads! They only took a few minutes to dry.

Next, you'll want to gather up a few supplies. I ran to my local craft store and purchased a few things: small crimping pliers, beading wire, toggles for the ends, crimping beads, and a few decorative beads. My 12 year old helped me make several of the beads, and they didn't turn out perfect, but in the end, it's quite ok. Since they are handmade, one wouldn't expect them to be perfect, right?

The decorative beads I picked out from the store to go with my handmade beads were teal, clear and silver, so I decided to try the blue/green handmade beads on my bracelet. Here is the finished product:

I was pleasantly surprised at how easy these bracelets are to make and plan on making lots more for gifts this season! Taylor had such fun too, I think she would enjoy making these for her teachers this year. She's in 7th grade, so we'll have many teachers to give gifts to this holiday. :) Nichole's video is so fun and easy to follow.

I used 5 homemade beads on this one, which is a little big for my wrist, so I think next time I would use 4 beads instead. This bracelet turned out to be about 8 - 8 1/2" long with the clasps. It was hard to gauge how long to make it!

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I have one more project made with the Beautiful Beads die and papers. First, I pasted some of the strips to white cardstock, then cut it out in a frame shape with one of the Mat Stack 4 dies (Layerz Mat Stack 4).

I used the Heart-2-Heart #7 flower die to cut little flowers with Summer Sunrise Patterned Paper. Love the pinks, oranges and yellows together.

The sentiment was embossed with white embossing powder to contrast with the pink cardstock!

Friday, September 14, 2012

Hello! Today the Papertrey Ink team is working with some new dies coming out this month on the 15th that are perfect for those handmade party favors! First up, a favor made for a Thanksgiving party. I used a new die called Tissue Paper Favors #1.

To make this, I simply cut 2 large pieces of tissue paper and folded them together into four quadrants, large enough for the die to fit onto when it's done being folded. Next, I placed the die on the fold and ran it through my Cuttlebug to cut out the shape. Then, I unfolded the tissue and placed some little chocolates in the center, and wrapped it up, tied it with a gold ribbon. The tag is stamped with Classic Kraft ink from the new Do Me A Favor Tags stamp set and tied on with black twine. I used a leaf from the Autumn Acorns die to attach to the tag!

Nichole Heady will be showing how to make these on her blog if you'd like to see more on how to do this! They are really easy and inexpensive to make, and of course would work for any occasion just by changing up the colors of tissue paper. I can see these made from felt too if you had a large enough piece of felt - OOH, that would be pretty.

Next is the Essential Pillow Box die, which I used Classic Kraft paper with here. I decorated it with a Damask Snowflake, a 2" circle cut from the Candy Cane Prints paper and a new stamp from Dawn McVey's Happiest of Holidays set! This is one of my favorite sets from this month's release, love the sentiments and the fonts!

And I couldn't resist one more quick card with the Happiest of Holidays stamp set, the same set that I used on my pillow box. :) The snowflakes are die cut out of felt with the new Snowflake Medley dies coming out on the 15th. LOVE these! I added Aqua Mist cardstock die cut with one of the Edgers dies, a strip of Pure Poppy Patterned Paper, a sentiment stamped with Hawaiian Shores ink and some embossed snowflakes from Snowflake Medley stamps.

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Papertrey Ink has come up with the cutest idea - a stamp set to create stationery for letters to Santa and "Nice List" certificates! How fun is that!

To make a "Nice List Declaration" certificate, I cut an A2 card size and folded it in half. I wanted to create something that would fit into one of these envelopes and decorate the envelope too.

I tried and tried and couldn't get a very good picture of it, but it's so cute in real life! :)

I used the Postmarks stamp set, along with the grid lines from the Desktop File: Inspiration stamp set to create my Nice List Certificate! Here is a closer peek of the envelope:

The Santa on the envelope is stamped with Soft Stone ink, he shows up better than you can see here, but it's a soft effect. Kind of like a watermark look. I had him stamped on the letter too, but it wasn't showing up very good for my photos, so I changed it to black and colored him in. :)

For my second project with Santa Stationery, I stamped a background and used it as gift wrap. The Santas are stamped with Classic Kraft ink and then colored in with chalks! Then the "Merry Christmas" was added with True Black ink to each Santa.

A little Pure Poppy Patterned Paper and ribbon finish off the gift. The snowflakes are made with the new Snowflake Medley dies.